17 Aug: Manipulating XML with namespace in AS3

Today I worked a lot with XML and namespaces, I have to add nodes and so on. And stumbled into problems regarding namespaces.After some struggles I found the solution.

Because of the namespaces things don't work when copy pasting from the documentation from AS3.

For example defining a node like this:

var data:XML = <sa:photos>
  <sa:photo src="left.jpg"/>
  <sa:photo src="right.jpg"/>
</sa:photos>

The compiler throws the following error: The prefix  "sa" for element "sa:photos"  is not bound.

You have to define it like:

var data:XML = <sa:photos xmlns:sa="uri of namespace">
  <sa:photo src="left.jpg"/>
  <sa:photo src="right.jpg"/>
</sa:photos>

Maybe this sounds logical now but the documentation is not so clear about this.

When added a node to this object you could do it like:

var x:XML = <sa:photo src="filename" />
data.appendChild(x);

But the same error is thrown, you have to do it like:

var x:XML = <sa:photo src="filename" xmlns:sa="uri of namespace" />
data.appendChild(x);